Microsoft may be well-served to bring in an outsider to replace departing CEO Steve Ballmer. Here are two strong candidates.

Both men are enviable professionals, and in Mullaly's case, at 68, he's earned retirement. Does he want to dive into a mess like Microsoft at that age? Experience with overachievers like him tells me yes, he'd vastly prefer that to sitting on the couch watching CNBC all day. I suspect the favorite would be Mullaly because he's proven. He could leave Ford in good, stable condition, and he knows Seattle from his Boeing days. Lawrie may be a tech guy, but he is still in the process of fixing CSC and isn't quite ready to leave it yet because his work is not done.